Get Rid Of The Ridiculous Profanity Filter In Creators Club

Hello

I was uploading a few scenarios today (coming up to 100 ), when suddenly, writing descriptions for Mods became something of a riddle.
The filter got upset with the most basic descriptions, even if i tried only using words which i have used before and it even filters words inside of words, such as passenger, which was allegedly fixed, but isnt.

and its sometimes completely broken, exhibit A:



The title is just the number 2, the description the letter a, yet it is profane or violating copyright or whatever, because the best part is, it doesnt even tell you what is the problem, just that there is one, good luck guessing what it is.

Why does the CC have a filter at all?
Why is it so harsh, who in their right mind would contain ass or words for genetaila (which you need for some UK Place names ) in their description, and even if, thats what Moderators / Admins are for!

A filter which gets upset so easily, and not just with english words, no, a combination of letters you used might be a bad word in spanish, german, or any other language is way too overkill for a thing like the Creators Club
I wouldnt be surprised if it somehow gets upset with the use of a double s in a word because of the SS.


Fact is, you cant write proper descriptions with this childish filter, and it lets you guess what the probem might be. You can have a Filter for really offensive words, but someone please explain to me why i sometimes cant use passenger, locomotive or stopper, when writing descriptions for a scenario in a train driving game.

 

They should take the filters off, the extreme ones anyway and then have a moderator who is decent to police the Creators Club and everybody will be happy, simples.

 

It's clearly a filter which belongs in the 1990s.

I recall when AOL was first launched in the UK, Scunthorpe would fail the profanity filters. Thankfully technology has moved on and we just need DTG to catch up .

 

That ridiculous filter PLUS that awful search engine can be wasted. Good for nothing!

Tom Fresco - Love your work!

 

Yes. Get rid of the filter. It’s too stupid for words.

 

I also want to thank Tom Fresco for sharing his amazing creations with everyone. What a great job!

 

I'd like to actually put some filter by route or train
In there. I literally have zero interest in filtering through pictures and guessing what scenario. That's what Instagram is for

 

What’s wrong with Ass anyway? It’s a perfectly normal English word meaning a donkey.

 

I completely agree with the OP, though have never been impacted by it myself as I haven't created anything yet. However, I'm not very confident that it will ever be fixed. The rate of change for TSW2 itself, much less CC, is dismal. In CC, despite there being many thousands of entries, you still can't filter by route or loco! That just blows my mind, that I can't say (or haven't found a way) to say "Show me all the scenarios for the Bakerloo line", or to be automatically linked to the livery an author created to match the scenario.

So while I sympathize, I think it will be a long time before we see any change. After all, this profanity filter issue has been commented on for years now, including by Sam himself in streams, and I'm sure if I watched them all over again I'd find Matt 'adding it to the list'. A list which seems to go nowhere and do nothing.

 

I doubt you'll find any complaints from me up to now on this forum, but the profanity filter drives me up the wall almost every time I try to give meaningful names to services in my own private scenarios.
As has been said already, it's often impossible to figure out what terrible word is contained somewhere in the text I have innocently typed.
I sometimes wonder if one list of banned words is being used for multiple languages.

 

The irony is that the filter used in the Creators' Club seems to work too well, in contrast to whatever filter is used on the forums, which doesn't work very well at all. Plenty of " naughties " manage to slip through on here.

 

They must've put an outdated filter on the forums then.

 

Completely agree, Tom. Fundamentally, DTG has no business imposing it's morals on us. Here's my post from a discussion on Steam -

Thanks for the explanation, I've just been stopped by the same issue (Class). It's idiotic.
The 3 letter word should never have been censored in any case, because it's in the dictionary, in all it's forms. Better that there's a setting allowing players to self censor.

I've raised it in a support ticket -
#47201 Word censoring - "Name not allowed"
"Name not allowed"
Cannot use the words Passenger or Class in the scenario name.
This is a rabbit hole. Morals should be down to the players not imposed by DTG. Although I resent the time spent developing a setting, best allow players to list & ban the words they don't like. Perhaps allow population with a 3rd party wordfilter list ?

and the response -
"As we understand, the in-game profanity filter is unable to whitelist these words in it's current state. "

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1282590/discussions/0/3055114706803265332/#c3387282447747588457

 

I wonder if it's something that is mandatory if you want your game to be PEGI 3, similarly to why the third party A-10 in MSFS has to have a hole instead of the gun if it's sold through the first-party marketplace.

 

The response is odd. Surely they can just update the filter instead if the current filter can't whitelist the words

 

I wouldn't be surprised if this is a factor. Minecraft - obviously played by children all over the world - is a PEGI 7. MSFS' Core Fighters as well as the recent Halo Pelican also have an absence of guns as well. Although the Pelican can probably be excused as the guns onboard are hand-held ones, not part of the ship.

 

Naming a repaint "1st class" or "2nd class" is also impossible. Which makes it kinda weird to find an intuitive name for the IC coaches. Of course I can name them "Avmmz" and "Bpmmz", but only those who know the exact name of the coaches find the repaints. But people thinking "Oh i'm looking for a repaint for the IC coaches" and type intuitively "first class IC" or something won't find it.

 

Sorry, but this is utterly ridiculous. DTG is a private company enforcing a standard appropriate for their all-ages demographic on their forums and product. That's not censorship or anyone imposing "morals" on anyone else.

When you trust people to self-police, you get, well, the internet.

 

Yeah i don't agree with the nonsense "imposing it's morals". That looks to me that this person utilises this very constructive forum post for his own agenda.
But the profanity filter has to get better. After all, it's still the Beta, so there is plenty of room for DTG to use our feedback and make it better

 

Aren't all submissions reviewed anyways by actual people? For example liveries?
How else would they make sure that nobody hides some questionable stuff inside a liveries?

Also, yes, if they can not just whitelist the words "Passenger" or "Class" in a Train sim game then yes, the filter is just bad. Just bad.

 

Yeah, I can't see how the current filter could be a conscious decision made by DTG, I can see them being forced to and doing it by putting in the least amount of effort possible, but them having this idea themselves seems a bit stupid considering it's a pretty redundant (but annoying) feature given the fact that there is a report feature and mods that actually act on those reports. And I assume it's fairly easy to circumvent if you had actually intended to use bad words.

 

Sorry, but not being able to name a service with a certain class of Train because 'class' is not allowed, IS ridiculous. Extremely ridiculous.

 

I heard about "Whitelists" for filters some time ago...maybe they could help.

 

Surely DTG censoring peoples everyday speech is not 'inclusive' as JD and others keep telling us?

I am not sure what the type of filter DTG are using but the ones I'm familiar with a few years ago now, you had type words in you do not want to see. As someone said above aren't the liveries getting looked at anyway? I don't mean to add to the workload of anyone but couldn't they look over the title as well?

I cannot see why DTG could not just put on a filter to just censor the most offensive ones and leave it at that. Getting triggered by the word 'ASS' seems very bizarre to me, no excuse but that how language works. Go to a Primary school playground and you will hear far worse. I'd love to know what actually is the age target DTG seems to think this game is being played by.

 

i took a cl*bottom* 150 from *willy*tone to S*fanny*horpe the other day

 

Of course it is, but that's malfunctioning software and nothing to do with imposing morals.

 

The game is rated " E " ( for everyone ). The site is age-gated at 16.

 

I got a warning for profanity for calmly stating I wasnt an act of piercing something with a sharp point, I never said anyone was just that I wasnt. So nothing surprises me really

 

I thought DTG wanted this game to be inclusive. Wouldn't censoring speech make the game not inclusive?

 

Sounds severely bigoted to me

 

16 [Removed due to abbreviating bad language - Benjamin Symons] , Have DTG ever listened to how 16 year old's talk?

 

I think the policy is extremely bigoted against sailors, longshoremen, truck drivers, bikers, prison inmates….

 

...members of the military...

For that matter, all adults with no more self-control than the aforementioned children who delight in using naughty language at any opportunity (when no adults are around to enforce good behavior) are now excluded. That could indeed hurt sales.

 

It’s another case of damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
Just where on the list of to do’s, fixes and patches does it stand?
And who ultimately decides it’s priority?

 

This explains perfectly the problems encountered by players when new DLC is released. They have problems advertising for a debugger.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...r-give-a-fig-about-on-air-swearing-ofcom-says

Interesting article on how in the UK atleast swearing is nolonger seen as taboo.

It is also important to remember that language evolves, for example upto and during WW1 bloke was deemed an offensive term for a superior officer.
It isn't also not that long ago that their was a UK charity with what is no deemed an offensive term as their name followed by society.

 

I think you have let DTG off the hook there. They didn't need to do anything but the bare minimum. There are the basic swear words that some find offensive which can be dealt with but obviously they have gone too far, I mean you can't say 'class', really?

And remember these liveries are getting vetted for their content so surely the name could be edited if it is offensive and if was childish just take it off.

I can remember a lot of blokes back in the 80's would not swear in front of women, I have never had a problem with swearing even as a kid hearing it on a regular basis (brought up in the RAF). Half the time I think certain people just can't wait to get offended.

 

I once worked in catering with an ex fisherman wife, she had the ability to converse whole sentences using only profanities AND it all made perfect sense.

I now work in construction and the office staff swear more than the guys and gals on site

 

I wonder if the 3+ rating is at play? I'm guessing there are implications for existing customers if the need to re-rate the game higher. (Obviously most people wouldn't care - but some will kick off if they bought it for their 4 year old)

Also while the UK is increasingly relaxed on language - the US is not and they LOVE a good Moral panic....

 

[removed - JD - completely inappropriate]

 

How does that have anything to do with what I said?

Media regulation is different in different places. Some countries demand more cuts to media then others. For example the heavily cut Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK, or the original US Dub of Sailor Moon that cut difficult topics and relationships.

The conservative movement in the US for example will try and get Children's Media banned for even mild innuendo that kids wouldn't notice.

DTG has had their game rated as 3+ - and what I'm saying is it would be difficult from a regulatory perspective to retrospectively raise that rating.

 

Also just found out Liverpool is forbidden because of poo. Seriously? You cant use Names of places in the game , this says all about the Filter and how stupid it is

 

Wow. Looks like spirit of steam users better not use liverpool when making a scenario. It's good to know Liverpool is a bad word. Maybe it has something to do with the soccer team. Maybe DTG think Liverpool is a bad team which is why Liverpool is now a bad word according to the filter and can't be used in custom scenario names

In all seriousness though, DTG need to update their filter. If DTG monitor what is posted in creators club then surely they can remove scenarios posted on the creators club that have offensive names. Frankly a filter does seem a bit unnecessary.

 

Told you they should have done Bath Green Park to Templecombe…

 

Judging by how bad this filter apparently is, "ath" would probably be banned too because it's "ass" with a lisp...


Ok I'll see myself off stage..

 

Thank you, but i mainly make scenarios, glad you enjoy my one livery too!

I think the Problem has always been there, definetly with words like passenger, stopper and locomotive. Liverpool is a new find, but i think it would also have been filtered out before.
And if it isnt that easy to update the filter, it would help massively if it would show you somehow what the "problematic" word is so you dont have to guess.

Also, does it filter pictures as well? It maybe was something different, but one time the filter got upset, so i completely reuploaded a scenario, copy and pasted the description, but only uploaded one of the three railfan shots from before, and it worked......

 

My old boss was like that, he would swear in front of me, and yet he would mind his P's and Q's in front of the ladies I worked with, one of whom was his wife. I found it ironic as I rarely swore then and rarely do now, yet their language would make Lee Evans blush!

This profanity filter seems to be controlled by Mary Whitehouse and is completely over the top. I am sure I read somewhere on here that the world Christmas wasn't even allowed. Banning place names like Liverpool is just barmy beyond belief!

 

are you sure it's the word 'poo'? and not 'Liver' as that's offensive to vegans :p

 

Liver is offensive to some of us carnivores, too. Blech.